Verizon Wireless now says their LTE build will be completed in mid-2013, six months earlier than originally projected. Speaking this week at the Wells Fargo Securities Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo stated that after some early hiccups that included numerous nationwide outages things have significantly smoothed out in deployments and still leads every other carrier in LTE coverage by far. "You can see that people are massively migrating to that network," insisted Shammo. Verizon recently stated that roughly 35% of the total traffic over their wireless network was via LTE. The company has also stated that the plan will be to sunset their 2G and 3G (EVDO) networks by 2021.

Verizon

Re: Verizon

When you're the clear leader in LTE coverage then you have the power of being able to set higher prices. And even though people bitch about the pricing, millions are evidently OK enough with it to pay it.

Re: Verizon

When you're the clear leader in LTE coverage then you have the power of being able to set higher prices. And even though people bitch about the pricing, millions are evidently OK enough with it to pay it.

They may be a "clear leader in LTE", but it's only because Verizon NEEDS this upgrade badly. Their 3G network cannot keep up with demand.

I have both AT&T (iPhone) and Verizon (iPad). On AT&T I honestly don't care if LTE pops up or not. "4G" HSPA speeds work fine for most purposes. On Verizon, if I see "3G", I know I'm in for a pitiful browsing experience unless I'm in an unpopulated area or it's the wee hours of the morning. Despite the amount of LTE that Verizon has deployed so far, I still see a lot of 3G. On the route from LA to Mammoth Lakes there were long stretches where I only had 1xRTT, where my AT&T iPhone had HSPA the whole way.

Re: Verizon

Re: Verizon

Unfortunately Verizon has the best network ATM so I'll just stick with my AOKP S3

That's the boat I'm in. I would love to pick up the new Nexus 4, but no other carrier has the coverage that Verizon does where I live. All of my coworkers, friends, and relatives that are not on Verizon all complain about their carriers coverage here.

The Nexus line is for people who like to hack their phones or maybe 1% of Verizon customers. The Nexus is a niche phone. I went with the S3 as the camera on the Nexus phones will very likely always be sub par (software).

What is good about nexus for the carriers is they get lots of insight and help from Google to make their phones better.

Re: Verizon

The Nexus line is for people who like to hack their phones or maybe 1% of Verizon customers. The Nexus is a niche phone. I went with the S3 as the camera on the Nexus phones will very likely always be sub par (software).

The Nexus line is for people who want the Android experience without the bullshit the vendors like to pull that degrades the user experience. Nexus phones get frequent updates and vanilla Android. Just like all iPhone and Windows phone users. It is Google's response to all the manufacturers who insist on shipping sub-par Android experiences.--"Padre, nobody said war was fun now bowl!" - Sherman T Potter

Re: Verizon

Still doesn't change the fact they are not major sellers and don't make that big a difference to the carriers in terms of subscribers. Very few average smart phone buyers care or even know about the Google Experience and of those who do not everyone one wants one.

Verizon doesn't need the LG Nexus 4. And without LTE it would suck anyway.

Re: Verizon

Still doesn't change the fact they are not major sellers and don't make that big a difference to the carriers in terms of subscribers. Very few average smart phone buyers care or even know about the Google Experience and of those who do not everyone one wants one.

I was only making the point that Nexus's target market isn't just hackers.

The Nexus line is for people who like to hack their phones or maybe 1% of Verizon customers. The Nexus is a niche phone. I went with the S3 as the camera on the Nexus phones will very likely always be sub par (software).

What is good about nexus for the carriers is they get lots of insight and help from Google to make their phones better.

I would not say that's so true. Anyone that knows how to install custom rom's on their phone would go for the phone that has the best specs because pretty much every phone has great developers. Look at the S3, the boot loader was unlocked rather quickly.--The above nonsense was brought to you in part by Netwire. Your premier internet discussion board information and solutions provider.

Re: How much of Verizon's current footprint IS NOT 3G?

A vanishingly small percentage of VZW's network isn't 3G, and those sites are out in the middle of nowhere, far from bandwidth availability etc.

The bigger question is how much of Verizon's roaming coverage isn't 3G, for whatever reason. In central TX, Five Star Wireless/West Central Wireless has chosen GSM/HSPA+ as their upgrade path rather than EvDO, so their CDMA network is sitting at 1xRTT.

Re: How much of Verizon's current footprint IS NOT 3G?

I know when roaming on US Cellulars network all you will get is 1xRTT and most of there network is 3G. I spent two weeks in Oaland, MD on storm dammage from Sandy and that really sucked. The funny thing is when I happen to be in Haggerstown I had Verizon LTE over extended network voice on US Cellular! Another interesting market expansion in that same part of the country was Morgantown, WV where Verizon put up a whole new network of 1xRTT for voice and LTE for data with no 3G at all. The way it looks for data they are mainly concentrating on LTE buildout from here on.

There's one small stretch of I-20/59 (maybe five miles at the most) between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham where my phone always drops to 1x. I have no idea why that's the case, as the rest of the way is either LTE or 3G. I was hoping they'd fix it when they turned on LTE in Tuscaloosa, but it's still there.

Other than that, I noticed some 1x areas still on U.S. 82 across Mississippi, but that was a year and a half ago, I think, so I'm not sure of the status of those places now. Also, in Tuscaloosa, there are some places down 69S that are still 1x, and weak at that. That one is odd, since that area has exploded in terms of population in the last 10 years or so, making it by far the fastest-growing part of the metro area, yet Verizon's coverage has never quite caught up.

Really?

I'm on the fringe of VZW LTE coverage and am stuck with 3G. Will be interesting to see if they really will upgrade all their non-core towers to LTE in 6 months or if they are just playing games and counting some presence.

What does "complete" mean?

The "end of 2013" time frame included all 3G areas getting LTE. Does the mid-2013 estimate still have this buildout milestone in mind, or will VZW stop short of upgrading all 3G areas to LTE for awhile?

I say this because, at this point, Sprint actually has LTE in a few (small) areas where VZW doesn't. I wonder when Verizon will catch up.

Re: Funny company

That is a really funky setup in that part of West Virgina. Verizon bought PCS spectrum from Northcoast a few years back from Clarksburg to Morgantown including Fairmont. Pretty much piecemeal network. It was a good while before they started selling in the Clarksburg area after it was built out. They just fired up the 3G in Clarksburg not that long ago. As far as I know they are using there spectrum and built out 1x voice to go with the LTE in Morgantown. Like I said above the only place I get LTE with extended voice from US Cellular is from Hancock, MD to Hagerstown. I do indicate on my smartphone and wireless card Verizon wireless service in Morgantown now. I checked there coverage map and that also shows Verizon wiress service in that area also.

A little dubious

I know they are building out far faster than anyone, but a look at a map shows A LOT of 3G areas left to be covered. And if you zoom in over half their 4G is actually "extended" 4G. And honestly in the "extended" 4G areas I have been in I have yet to get in any 4G it's always 3G.

Re: A little dubious

The extended part with a smartphone you probobly wont see LTE. My hotspot will pick up LTE in these areas that my smartphone wont due to the smartphone using a cell site with the strongest signal for voice. The modem dont care it sees a usable LTE signal it takes it.